I just bought a mill and have been getting it all setup. I have the steppers mounted, wired and everything is moving as it should. The problem is getting it trammed properly. I started with a machinist square and aligned the Z column perpendicular to the X axis. Then I attached a test indicator to the headstock and moved it up and down and fine tuned the alignment to almost perfection! Moving up and down a 123 block the needle barely moves - it's a .0005 resolution dti so I think I'm within .0001 of being dead on.
Before I attached the spindle and started tramming it I wanted to ensure the Z column was perpendicular to the Y axis. It turns out that over about 2-1/2" of travel on the 123 block it's just over .002 out of perpendicular, it leans forward. I know I can shim between the dovetail and the column to get the spindle perpendicular to the table, but the column will still be off.
This means that the bottom of a slot cut along the X axis will be close to the Z column than the top, right?
Is there any way to adjust the perpendicularity of the Z column to the Y axis?
Should I not worry about it?
I have an email in to Nick Carter, he's who I bought it from, but I thought I'd post here tonight and see if I get a reply here first - I know Nick actually has a life and probably won't be checking email at 9:30 on a Saturday night...
Thanks for any help!
Gary
Here is a link to a video of the Y/X - http://www.nwlaserimage.com/taig/01.avi
and here is the Y/Z - http://www.nwlaserimage.com/taig/02.avi
I also attached a closeup of the dti at the bottom of the 123 block testing the Y/X axis.